KNUTSON, Christine
January 19, 1957 – January 19, 2019
After a difficult struggle with cancer passed away at the palliative care hospice of the St Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital in Ottawa on Saturday, January 19, 2019 at the age of 62 years. Beloved wife of the Hon. Gar Knutson. Cherished mother of Michael, William (Katarzyna) and Clare. Christine will be sadly missed by her mother Sophia Birdsell, brother William Birdsell (Jan) of Guelph Ontario, and nieces and nephews.
Christine supported her husband with her warmth and charm during his 11 years in the House of Commons before she embarked on the most satisfying stage of career as a family and criminal lawyer working for the most disadvantaged in Nunavut. Her colleagues from Nunavut saw her as someone who exemplified all the good traits that a person and lawyer could possibly have. She cared for the people, client or not, whose path she crossed. Christine befriended everyone she met in the North, and brought life, joy and compassion to her work. In the words of one colleague, “she made life better and brighter to everybody I ever saw her associate with. She had a knack of making the most troubled clients feel wanted and helped.” Christine was a committed feminist, who saw her criminal defense work as a calling to human rights work.
Christine was a loving mother, wife, and daughter. She was fully supportive of her children’s dreams and ambitions. She was proud to see William and Clare graduate from Queens and McGill respectively, both in engineering and her son Michael pursue a degree in mathematics, while following his passion for acting and theatre. Christine took care of her mother at home for the past eight years after her mother was no longer able to live on her own. Christine’s homelife included a love of gardening, walking or snowshoeing the local Orleans trails, showing visitors the highlights of Ottawa and loving her dogs through her adult life. She was an avid reader and enjoyed stories of broken-down detectives on Netflix. In her final days she distracted herself with Home and Garden TV and watching Raptors basketball with her husband. Christine suffered a difficult death, as she was inflicted with cancer for the third time over the past ten years. She received excellent treatment from the doctors and nurses of the Ottawa Hospital and her family doctor. Her mostly women doctors connected with her not only on a highly professional basis, but also on a human level and grieved along with her as she battled and eventually succumbed to her disease. The palliative care team of Carefor Health and Community Services, (formerly VON), and the hospice of St Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital in Ottawa were beyond generous in their commitment to Christine’s care and were pained by her tragically untimely death.
Christine was also supported in her final weeks at home by her friends, the good women of Fallingbrook, and her family from Brantford. She appreciated the friends who visited her at the hospice to share the pain of her tragic illness.
Christine would want to thank all the professionals, friends and family who cared and or prayed for her in her final days including the priests and parishioners of Divine Infant Catholic Church, and those who continue to care and pray for her now and into the future. Family and friends may pay respects at the Kelly Funeral Home-Orleans, 2370 St. Joseph Blvd. Orleans, ON K1C 1G1 613-837-2370.
On Friday February 22, 2019 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. A Memorial Mass will be held at 10 a.m., on Saturday February 23, 2019 at Divine Infant Catholic Church 6658 Bilberry Dr. Orleans ON. In lieu of flowers Christine wished for donations to Carefor Health and Community Services Ottawa or Qajuqturvik Food Centre (soup kitchen) Iqaluit NU.